Peshawar clinches Inter-District Hockey Championship title

PESHAWAR: Peshawar clinched the trophy after defeating Bannu in the final of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inter-District Hockey Championship played here at Lala Ayub Hockey Stadium on Sunday.

Director General Engr. Khanzeb Khan was the chief guest on this occasion. Vice President Pakistan Hockey Federation Muhammad Saeed Khan, Secretary Syed Zahir Shah, officials and players and spectators were also present and witnessed the match played in a one-sided affair.

The match started with slow pace as the ball was mostly remained confined to mid-field as a result none of the team could be able to score any goal. Thus after playing a goal-less draw, it was the second session in which Peshawar dominated. Peshawar took the lead through full-back Muhammad Ijaz in the 50th minute while left winger Samad Khan made it 2-0 after scoring a beautiful goal. Samad dodged three defenders before receiving a ball from mid-field Zia-ur-Rehman and did nothing wrong in dispatching it into the net.

Samad made it 3-0 after scoring another beautiful goal on the field attempt in the 63rd minute while center forward Haroon netted the fourth goal to make the tally 4-0.

Bannu in the dying moments of the match tried their hard to reduce the margin but due to pack defence and tight marking their forwards were failed to make any combine move.

Thus Peshawar won the final match by 4-0. The match was supervised by Tufail Khan and international hockey umpire Hamza Khan. Teams from Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Mardan, Abbottabad, Haripur, Nowshera, Malakand and two teams of host Peshawar took part.

At the end, chief guest Director General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Board Engr. Khanzeb Khan gave away trophies and cash prizes. The winners was awarded Rs. 7000 cash prize while the runners-up got Rs. 4000/- cash prize. (APP)